A Visit of Remorse
by Hell's Fiery Belle
Summary: Fishlegs goes to see an injured Ruffnut.


_This is my very first How to Train Your Dragon fic (and fic on this site). So any thoughts good or bad would be appreciated. I also think part of this was influenced by Backroads' story "Girls Like Flowers", so thanks to her for letting me use it._

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Mauling was not nearly as cool as Ruff had expected it to be. Maybe if she had been fighting dragons in an actual fighting scenario the wound on her leg would have meant more to her than just pain.

But no. All she had done was walk by Fishlegs trying to teach his Gronckle how to play, of all things, fetch.

The stick hand landed a little too close to her, and the next thing she knew a half-ton dragon had her pinned to the ground. Not cool.

Then Fishlegs had the audacity to laugh. Which admittedly would too have been her first reaction if it had been someone else getting chewed on by an overly excited dragon. It was a good minute before the dork realized she was in trouble.

That had been this morning. What a great way to start the day. Practically getting mortally wounded. The only good thing was getting out of chores. Ruff despised women's chores. Girly chores. The boys got to do all the fun stuff. Except she wasn't doing those, either. She was lying in her bed with bandages around her leg, bored stiff since she had Tuffnut banned from the room. He thought it was great joke a dragon confused her leg with a stick. (Were her legs really that unshapely? That did make her worry.)

She was just getting bored enough to strangle herself with own braids when a knock came at the door, which then opened without awaiting a response. Fishlegs' terrified face poked through.

"Hi," he said softly. "Your mom said I could see you."

Ruff reached for a pillow. Tragically, she only had one and it was way too comfy to throw. "I didn't say you could come in!"

Fishlegs looked miserable. Poor guy probably felt guilty. Good. "Can I come in?"

Ruff sighed and thought again about using her pillow as a weapon. She was bored, and tearing into Fishlegs for his idiocy could be fun. "Sure. Whatever."

He closed the door and darted to a chair, like he feared she would attack him. Like she could even get up. He sat down and stared at the floor. "I'm so so so so sorry!"

"You already apologized like that when they were carrying me off. Got anything original?"

His gaze then turned to the ceiling as he thought. "Um, I'm feeling wretchedly remorseful?"

She stared at him. "What does that even mean?"

"You said you wanted something original." He folded his hands into his lap, guilt doubling in his face.

"Yeah, but in Norse!"

"It means I'm sorry."

"I figured. But I didn't understand a word of it."

"Well, "remorse" means I felt bad for what I did and—"

Why was he giving her a vocabulary lesson? Like she cared about that? "That's great. Thanks. I appreciate you letting your dragon tear into me."

Fishlegs face went red. "Horrorcow's not usually like that. She's usually very obedient. But this was a new game and new games excite her."

"You could have made sure the coast was clear before you threw the stick! Are you blind? She was biting me! I was screaming! You could have called her off!"

"I thought she was playing with you. Um, I brought you something." His hands fumbled to his pocket and pulled out a few badly crushed flowers. "Here."

"You brought me dead flowers?" she asked.

"They were alive when I picked them?"

"Why would even bring me flowers?"

"Because I feel wretchedly—"

"Remorseful. I got it. Next time you bring a girl flowers, have them looking like they were just picked. Just a word of advice. But bring me flowers again, and I will kill you. Got it? Because it is not making up for what you did to me." She folded her arms and tried to look tearful. She had never been good at looking tearful.

"So it hurts a lot?"

"What do you think? Your stupid dragon bit me."

"She's never bitten me before…"

"How wonderful that she likes you."

"So what did the doctor say?"

Ruffnut sighed. "She said she wants me in bed for at least three days. But I'm going to be up tomorrow. Just watch."

"Is it broken?"

"No, thank Freya. Just a little gored. Nothing I can't handle. Though you still should have called her off earlier."

"Can I see it?"

Her mouth fell open. "I'm not going to let you look at my bare leg!"

"I didn't mean it that way…"

"Then how did you mean it? The dumb dragon bit up through my thigh. And you're just asking me to lift my skirt?"

He looked ready to faint.

She hid back a smile. Score for her. That one definitely got him.

"You're not going to call your dad, are you?" he finally asked as he choked back breath.

"This time I won't. So tell me, what's going in the land of the living?"

"Um… nothing new. You're the most exciting thing that has happened today."

"Great. I've become a celebrity for an injury."

"Well, it was kind of funny…" He grinned sheepishly.

"Next time, I'll throw the stick."

"I brought a book," he said, clearing his throat. "I thought maybe you would want me to read to you."

"Why in Hel's name would I want you to read to me?"

"Because you're bored, maybe?"

"It had better not be the dragon manual."

Silence.

She closed her eyes and sighed. "Fine. Go ahead." She settled back and tried to think about something else. Growing up with Tuffnut had made her very good at tuning people out.

And Fishlegs needed to be tuned out. He was having way too much fun reading that dull thing. And despite his excitement in talking about dragons every other moment of the day, he read with absolutely no expression whatsoever, his voice becoming a drone.

Fortunately, the combination of meadowsweet and chamomile her mother had given her earlier began to kick in with a strong desire to knock her out. She drifted off, Fishlegs' flat voice sounding further and further away.

It was night when she awoke. She could hear Tuffnut snoring away on the other side of the room. Now she would never get back to sleep. At least Fishlegs had gone with his stupid book.

She sneezed. Twice.

Now what? Was she getting a cold on top of everything else?

She sneezed a third time, and then through the moonlight from the window she saw it.

Half a field's worth of flowers crammed into a basket, sitting at the foot of her bed.

How annoying sweet. She sneezed again.

She was going to have to kill Fishlegs.

**The End!**


End file.
